posted at 1:07 pm on March 29, 2008 by Allahpundit

“What are you up for tonight, honey? Action? Comedy? Or a tribute to desertion as the only moral answer to Bush’s war of lies?”

I’m told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn’t expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. “It’s not looking good,” a studio source told me before the weekend. “No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It’s a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that’s unresolved yet. It’s a shame because it’s a good movie that’s just ahead of its time.”

They keep making ’em even though we keep not watching ’em, which shows you how committed they are to the message and/or fearful of testing that “America’s not ready yet” hypothesis with a pro-war flick. Check out the trailer for this abortion if you missed it last year. One shopworn anti-war contrivance after another, right down to the cringeworthy graphic of a tattered flag. No wonder even the left doesn’t want to sit through this crap.

Update: Here’s the Libertas review. See what I mean about anti-war dog whistles? “Stop-loss is only in effect during times of war, and the President said the war was over.”

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Comments

What else do you expect from a bunch of idiots that think global warming is a bigger threat to human life that islam?
redshirt on March 29, 2008 at 1:44 PM

Pretty much sums up the situation perfectly…

How does this trailer make everyone else feel when they see it? I’m active duty and it made me want to rip someone’s head off (my wife was seething through it too) and by the time it was over it had more or less ruined the movie I was about to watch. Is it like that for anyone else?
Make a really kickass movie about Operation Al Fajr (Phantom Fury was a cooler name) and I bet the people will flock to theaters.
blankminde on March 29, 2008 at 1:52 PM

You’re right blankminde… Problem is, that will not happen with the current crop of Liberals running Hollywood. These people truly do live in a bubble; will not even associate with people that are not like minded. The day will likely come, when the power changes hands once again in Hollywood. A day when Hollywood goes back to making movies that are focused on entertaining the audience with a twinge of “feel good” coming by way of tapping into one’s pride and honor of nation. One thing about the Mexican people that I admire and respect; these people are very proud to be Mexicans; very proud of their traditions; very proud of their history… Pride and honor of country is a very powerful set of emotions; a dynamic that has been missing from Hollywood for decades. As ticket sales steadily dropped in America, Hollywood film makers reached across the pond for sales. In doing so, they drifted into making more anti-America films simply because these films generated great profits with foreign markets. In essence, American film makers have helped to create an “anti-American” attitude that has taken shape throughout much of Europe and Africa.

Spielberg, Katz, and the rest of this crop of Liberal America haters will not get one dime of my money….

But really, it seems people want to go to movies based on events that never happen or never happened. Imaginary characters work well. Maybe they should make another movie about Jesus.

LevStrauss on March 29, 2008 at 4:13 PM

Interesting, since the last Hollywood movies about Christ were The Da Vinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ, both of which abandoned the Jesus Christ known to Christians for some fictional creation all of their own imagination.

So your parallel holds true, even if that’s not what you really meant.

(No, The Passion of Christ doesn’t count as a Hollywood movie. Hollywood rejected that one as hard as they could, so you can’t really call it a Hollywood movie.)

On the bright side, I just got back from the Mirror Universe premiere of “Stop-Loss,” and it was a terrific evening at the theatre. The whiny Ryan Phillipe character decides to desert his commission even as his noble warrior friends are preparing to return to Iraq, to avenge their fallen comrade and protect the Iraqi people from the butchers in their midst. The scenes of Phillipe crossing the country on his quest to Washington are movingly intercut with footage of Iraqi civilians being brutalized by al-Qaeda operatives, and giving testimony to the horrors they suffered under Saddam. The scene where Phillipe’s unit goes back to Iraq without him, and heroically takes down an entire al-Qaeda cell despite being outnumbered eight to one, are split-screened with footage of Harry Reid saying the war in Iraq was lost, causing waves of laughter and cheers from the audience. (Oddly enough, Mirror Universe Harry Reid is the only guy who doesn’t have a little goatee.) The final shot of the al-Quaeda leader sobbing as he surrenders to the American warriors brought the audience to its feet. Meanwhile, back in the states, the Phillipe character catches up to his patron senator and tells his story. The senator tells him he’s an idiot and a nauseating little coward, and sends him on his way. Heartbroken, our deserter wanders the streets of DC until he’s almost killed in a violent mugging, only to be rescued by an 85-year-old World War II vet, who gives him a moving, yet extremely terse, lecture on the nature of patriotism and manhood. The unforgettable final image shows a reborn Phillipe hitting the sands of Iraq, greeted by a group of cheering Iraqi civilians… but, noticing a group of sullen Iraqis glaring at him in the background, the newly mature soldier squints and says, “We’ve still got a lot of work to do here, fellas. Let’s roll.” The end credits played over a ghostly montage of Saddam Hussein speeches, people jumping from the World Trade Center on 9/11, cheering Palestinians handing out candy, and American tanks rolling into battle. Mirror Universe audiences rewarded it with a $70MM opening weekend at the box office, and expressed thanks at the patriotism and humanity of Mirror Universe Hollywood, which is just as much a weapon in the war against Islamic fascism as it was in the war against Hitler. Oh, and Mirror Universe movie tickets still cost $5.00, and the popcorn is delicious…